The first time senior Brandon Townsend got into a fight, he was in fourth grade. Another kid tried to take his lunch money, he remembers, so Townsend promptly decked him. It was the start of many years in which he would resort to solving problems with his fists.

Today, Townsend is 17 years old. He leans forward as he talks about his life, thinking carefully before he speaks. He still fights, too — though it’s not the kind of scuffles he was once involved in.

“See this?” he asks, pointing at the letters “AKA” embroidered on his black beanie. “‘American Kickboxing Academy.’ MMA is where it’s at.”

And when he smiles, his eyes light up.

Rough beginnings
The city of Stockton, Calif., is located in the San Joaquin County of the Central Valley region. With FBI data indicating 1,417 violent crimes — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — per 100,000 people, it was named the 10th most dangerous city in the U.S. by the Wall Street Journal in 2012. It is also the place where Townsend grew up.

Throughout his childhood, Townsend struggled with behavior problems, constantly getting involved in fights and acting up at school because others picked on him so often.

“Stockton has a lot of guns, weapons, gangsters, drugs, alcohol,” Townsend said, counting on his fingers. “There were always a lot of bullies, people bigger than you, stronger than you, and they always wanted to take your things. Then push comes to shove, shove comes to punch, and it just escalates from there.”

Townsend says he lacked motivation to work hard in academics, largely because he did not have a clear goal in mind. Multiple school suspensions — and near expulsions — later, he realized how dissatisfied he was with doing nothing. He wanted direction in his life.

So when he met an old friend who had recently gotten involved in mixed martial arts, it caught his attention. The two started a backyard fight club, sparring with each other after school and inviting friends over to box. Five months later, Townsend was interested enough to start training at a gym. There, he focused on Muay Thai, a combat sport from Thailand similar to kickboxing, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

A new city
At the end of his second year in high school, Townsend moved to Cupertino, Calif. to live with his grandmother and found himself in a place entirely different from his old home. At MVHS, Townsend seemed like a normal enough kid with green eyes, a sturdy build and blondish-brownish hair shaved close to his head. Most of his classmates weren’t even aware of what Townsend, who cracks jokes regularly in class, had been through — or how much it took to get him to where he was.

Though he had yet to find a gym for MMA, with the help of MVHS wrestling coach Ian Bork, Townsend learned to channel his energy and athleticism into wrestling.

“[Townsend] is driven and has self-belief,” Bork said. “Even through injuries and lack of support, he just keeps working hard.”

When wrestling season ended, Townsend still felt the desire to continue MMA. In the summer after his sophomore year, he joined the American Kickboxing Academy in Sunnyvale, Calif., where he has been training ever since. He progressed quickly, becoming an experienced fighter while learning discipline as he invested hours into both training and getting caught up with schoolwork.

“I needed to find something to help me keep going in school,” Townsend said. “Once I got into MMA, I started doing a lot better; I got better grades and I started acting better at home.”

Full contact in the cage
When Townsend steps into the cage, he says ready for combat. But as he faces his opponent, sizing him up, what goes on in his head is much different nowadays. He says he was all too eager to jump into fights before, impulsively pummeling whoever got near him. In MMA, he takes a more mindful approach, looking for his competitor’s weaknesses and playing a smart game, a style that Bork describes as “unfiltered aggression, yet technical.”

Though MMA is considered a highly physical sport, Townsend says that it has actually helped him become a more mellow person overall — at least when he’s not competing.

“They teach you how to handle your actions so you don’t get out of hand and hurt someone,” Townsend said.

Even in the midst of striking and grappling, he emphasizes the importance of holding respect for his opponents and viewing them as peers to learn from. With a grin on his face, Townsend reenacts his post-match routine — which, as he explains, consists of “a handshake and a hug for the man, and a smile for the camera.”

A bright future
Though he has only been training in MMA for a few years, Townsend sees himself continuing the sport for many more to come; he aspires to become a professional fighter, saying that it would be the perfect career for him. When it’s not school wrestling season, he trains at his academy for an average of 30 hours a week.

“He’s had setbacks, but he’s really good, and he has so much potential,” teammate senior Justin Figueroa said. “In MMA, I know he’s going to go far.”

And if someone tried to start a fight with Townsend today?

“I would walk away,” he says without hesitation. “It’s all because of MMA. If I was my freshman self and someone was blabbing their mouth, I would probably end up punching them in the face. Nowadays, I would just look at them and be like, ‘You’re immature. I’m walking away. This isn’t my business. You’re wasting my time.’”